Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia. Will the minister update the House on the government's $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, and the importance of building key economic infrastructure in the north? How will this benefit constituents in my electorate of Leichhardt?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question and acknowledge his passionate support for his electorate and his instrumental role, together with Senator Macdonald, in developing the northern Australia white paper—and the warm embrace he gave me recently when I visited his electorate, which ended up on the front page of The Cairns Post! The Turnbull government is absolutely committed to the development of northern Australia. It has 40 per cent of the nation's landmass and five per cent of the nation's population but contributes 11 per cent of the nation's GDP and has a huge endowment of resources. But what it needs more of is key economic infrastructure, across water, communication, transport and energy.

That is why the government recently released, at the fantastic Northern Australia Investment Forum organised by the member for Goldstein, the eligibility criteria for our $5 billion concessional loan Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. The key criteria are that this needs to support economic infrastructure with a public benefit which has multiple users. This is not about crowding out the private sector. It is about a partnership with the private sector and with state and territory governments. The Commonwealth will commit up to 50 per cent of the projects' debt, and there will be commercial discipline imposed on the loan recipients, because this will be patient capital provided by the federal government leveraging off its balance sheet. It is on top of the $1.2 billion worth of initiatives that were contained in the white paper.

When I visited the member for Leichhardt's electorate, in Cairns I attended a forum organised by Advance Cairns and the chamber of commerce and I visited the airport there, which is the seventh-largest international airport in our country, with five million annual passengers. I discussed with the operators a potential upgrade to that airport of up to $1 billion, to create an aviation enterprise precinct which brings together engineering, freight and logistics and aeronautical services. Also raised with me was the Nullinga Dam proposition, which has been put forward by the Queensland government as a potential NAIF project, which could provide water security to people in the region.

The development of northern Australia is critical to this country's prosperity. It is a long-term endeavour, not just for five, 10, 15 or 20 years but well beyond that. It is a bipartisan endeavour, and I thank the member for Brand and the member for Lingiari for attending the recent forum in Darwin. This is ultimately a national endeavour, because, when the north of Australia prospers, the rest of Australia also prospers.